


After Battle

by Delatrista



Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, blacksunweek2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:07:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25612564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delatrista/pseuds/Delatrista
Summary: She was becoming far too familiar with the brand of fear which accompanied witnessing the near death experiences of those she cared for. Just minutes earlier, even the thought of Sun in mortal danger had caused alarms shrieking in her head. The sound of his heartbeat was the only thing assuring her she had been too paranoid. Hearing it now, the steady thrum of his lifeblood, she had never been more thankful to for a sound like it in her life.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Sun Wukong
Kudos: 18





	After Battle

The aftermath of a battle was always quietest. The very world seemed to hold its breath, in anticipation of the grief to come. An unsettling peace fell over the combatants like a heavy blanket, after the violence ceased.

Silence reigned in the night air over Haven’s campus grounds. Victory rushed in with an ache of relief, which strengthened with each familiar face that was accounted for by every fighter. So far there had been no casualties. Only a fraction of Menagerie’s forces had endured critical wounds from what Blake could see, and of those individuals, they had been at the front line when Adam’s followers had attacked first. Most had suffered only surface wounds as kin was pitted against kin. Faunus against Faunus, warring against each other to prove their way was the best one forward.

It hurt, to spill the blood of a neighbor. But she had to keep reminding herself it was necessary. Those very neighbors would not have hesitated to cut her down in her reticence. 

She weaved quickly between clusters of Faunus as they reunited with grateful cries. She already shared in their relief. Everyone she cared for was relatively unharmed and safe; Kali and Ghira had gone to tend to the wounded, while Ilia was herding together a crowd to help the Mistralian police escort the captured White Fang soldiers to a secure location. A pang twinged her heart. Those men and women had only been doing what they thought had been for the betterment of their people. They hadn’t known the man they followed sought only to champion his own cause. It didn’t alleviate their guilt; they would have destroyed another country from within, had their efforts succeeded. But nonetheless, she pitied them.

Thinking of those unfortunate souls offered a distraction from the guilt which weighed on her own conscious, in any case.

Team RWBY, though broken, had finally reunited. The shock of seeing those girls again, after so long of believing she would never get the chance to, had made her thoughts race with an undercurrent of roiling anxiety. They had already left Haven’s campus, and Blake wasn’t entirely sure she felt sorry for being relieved at their absence. A slouching man with red eyes and jet-black hair— Ruby and Yang’s uncle, if Blake’s memory of the Vital Festival served correctly— had gone to stow away the unusual lantern Yang had emerged with, from the unknown depths of Haven. The remains of team JNPR had carried off a young boy, surely no older than fifteen, whose solemn declaration had followed Emerald’s parting gift to them.

 _“That…was Salem.”_ She shuddered at the echo of that ominous declaration. The memory of that monstrous hallucination Emerald had conjured, a towering visage of a woman white as bone with blackened veins snaking across her skin, refused to leave her mind. It stared at her with eyes dark as pitch, as its mouth was thrown open in a horrible screech. She couldn’t ever forget it if she tried, and she desperately wanted to.

The sight of had only served to highlight the divide that had formed between Blake and the girls whom she had once considered to be an extension of her family. She knew nothing of what they had been doing this past year, or where they had been, or what they were up against. All three of them were changed, hardened women. They were strangers, far removed from the last time Blake had seen each of them.

Regardless, they clearly had not been idle, and they had not forgotten her. Blake was not sure if that was for the better or not.

Yang had not spared her a glance when she had walked away at her uncle’s beckoning, hoisting the elegant gold-and-aqua lantern at her side with her remaining arm. Ruby and Weiss had ran after them after it was clear neither Yang or her uncle were expecting Blake to follow. Weiss had carried Yang’s prosthetic in shaking hands as she went.

Blake hadn’t been able to hide her shame, even as Ruby explained to her where they were staying, so she could come to them when she was ready. Her apologetic eyes, with the silver in them eclipsed by the void of her pupils, only somewhat eased Blake’s heavy heart. It was not going to be easy, seeing them outside of the battlefield again. Part of her wanted to flee from another encounter with them. Another urged her to go after them, to beg them for forgiveness.

But she wasn’t trying to find them now. Instead, she was searching the crowds for a familiar shock of blonde hair. For the sight of a tawny tail and red gauntlets.

Sun had all but disappeared, after he had sent her on her way into her teammates’ arms. After they had departed, however, she had gone in search of him to discuss what they were to do next. Thus far, she was having no luck in tracking him down. Her mother had told her she had seen him head in Ilia’s direction. Once she had informed her friend of this lead, Ilia had directed her off towards Haven’s front gate, citing that Sun had told her he was going to scout for any Fang soldiers who had escaped the initial arrests.

The crowd was thinning as people found their loved ones, mingling back towards the main campus. But as she weaved through the bodies, Blake quickly realized Sun was nowhere to be found.

It did not take long to confirm he was not where Ilia had told her he would be. The main road leading down into Mistral’s metropolis was likewise deserted, with only the lamps lighting the way with their soft orange glow. She searched, walking around the entrance to the school, for visible signs of a fight or a struggle. She couldn’t hear any sign of life around her, and once she had circled the entranceway twice, a familiar fear settled deep in her bones.

It wasn’t the sharp, shrill terror which had once heralded Adam’s rage. It wasn’t the sound of war drums in her ears that accompanied her into battle. It wasn’t even the shame of believing she had been left behind, never good enough, always ruining those she loved. This fear was saltwater filling her lungs, ice freezing her blood and spreading an all too familiar numbness throughout her veins. It was a fear of loss. A fear which only accompanied death. And the pieces she had been searching for fell together like shards of broken glass.

Adam was not among the captured White Fang soldiers.

The police had not found him in the forests.

Sun was missing.

It did not take much effort to reach the horrible, inevitable conclusion.

Blake’s legs were in motion before her brain had caught up to the action. She looped back towards the campus, her eyes darting between every shadow and point of light she could see. Her muscles, weary from combat, protested the strain as she sprinted, but she ignored her body’s cry for mercy.

She passed handfuls of buildings as she went. Each one was dark, untouched by the fighting, and no doubt empty. The breeze stirred by her movements rustled through the fur at the base of her ears, drowning out everything but her own thoughts— each step she took sounded like a gunshot, every breath she drew in was a sword piercing flesh, faces which turned to her in concern and surprise bore Grimm masks and gunmetal gray eyes…

_“Stay safe,” she said. Her voice was softer than she’d ever heard it. She should have been surprised, should have suppressed that gentleness which swept through her whenever she looked at Sun these days. But she didn’t; she wanted to be soft around him, even in the chaos which surrounded them._

_“No promises,” Sun replied. A hint of laughter threaded through his tone, and a delicate smile formed on her lips as he left. He was so carefree, joking with her without a care in the world for the fact that they were in a maelstrom of fighting. She trusted him to take care of himself— no, not just that. She trusted_ him. _Completely._

Gods, how could she have been so stupid?

She was a walking bad luck charm, inflicting misfortune on everyone she came across by virtue of association. Sun had fought by her side, working against Adam without fear, and together they had put him on the defensive. She couldn’t remember the last time Adam hadn’t been the one to lead the attacks. At the time, she’d only been elated to finally stand before him, to be free of the fear he’d caused in her life. She hadn’t considered that by doing so, she had proven to Adam that Sun was yet another weak link for her.

That had only been a few hours ago. She had let him run away into the night, instead of confronting him as was her responsibility which she owed to every person associated with her. And Sun, if Adam had not found him already, was potentially alone. Vulnerable. If they fought…she wasn’t sure who would win. She did know she did not want to find out.

She returned back to the main courtyard in a blur of white and black. As she drew closer to the huddled groups of the Menagerie citizens who had fought for her, she heard someone mention an offhanded comment that Haven’s dorms were being opened to their forces to stay for the night.

She ground to a halt, coattails and Gambol Shroud’s ribbon fluttering behind her. She reached out and grasped the nearest person, a deer Faunus, by the arm. “Where…?” she gasped out. She couldn’t breathe enough to compensate for the exhaustion and panic.

The young woman stared at her with blissfully wide brown eyes, an eyebrow quirked in confusion.

Blake tried again. “Where…where are the dorms?” she asked, just as breathless as before.

The woman tilted her head to the side, appraising Blake for a moment, then pointed off to a pathway which led behind Haven’s main compound, its crumbled façade a different kind of causality of the battle between her teammates, friends, and their enemies. The paved road was an offshoot from the main courtyard, where people were beginning to gather. She nodded her thanks, then took off just as quickly as before.

Already, some of the Faunus were making their way in the same direction. She passed them with graceless, fumbling speed, a silent prayer building in her throat that she would find Sun safe amongst the crowd.

Once she reached the living quarters, Blake came to a halt, only to take in the surroundings. The dorms of Haven were similar to Beacon’s, though she was unsure why she expected it to be otherwise. Clusters of high rises were set around a wide courtyard, larger than even the central one back at the front of the campus, built in Mistral’s signature oriental style multiple stories tall. The buildings were set amongst carefully maintained landscaping, and framed against the backdrop of the forests which cascaded down the mountainside. Some of the buildings had already been unlocked, doorways flung open and golden light pouring into the street, though there was no-one in sight as of yet.

She was quick to rush forward again, and the last of her self-restraint laid scattered in the road behind her as she shouted his name. “Sun!”

A police officer exited the doorway from the first dorm on her left, but she didn’t move towards them. She began to run a circuit through the rounded plaza, searching the spaces between the buildings where the foliage was dense and dipped in shadow. No flash of gold or crimson caught her attention in the darkness. There were no sounds of a fight to be heard, either. Her ears twitched wildly atop her head despite the silence, because no answer was almost worse than hearing combat. At least she would have a direction to go towards, if nothing else. The quiet surrounded everything.

“Sun!”

He had to be somewhere nearby. He wouldn’t just vanish; that wasn’t like Sun. Though, she couldn’t fault him if that was what he would decide to do. After everything she had done, up to and including running away herself, she had no right to expect him to stay. She couldn’t even allow herself to wish he would have left her an explanation if he had, in fact, left. She hadn’t afforded that courtesy to anyone, even him, and deep down she knew she shouldn’t expect the same. She didn’t deserve it, didn’t deserve _Sun_ for the brief time he had spent by her side, gentle and patient and _kind_ —

“Blake!”

Oh, thank the gods.

She stopped running so quickly when she heard the voice that she nearly tripped over her own feet in her haste.

 _So much for being a Huntress in training,_ she thought; she couldn’t even move without shaking as the fear melted away into warm, liquid relief that pooled in her chest and made her head far too light. She turned on her heel just in time to see him emerging from the same building she had witnessed the police officer leave from earlier, and she exhaled a harsh breath.

He jogged leisurely towards her, with the grin she had become so familiar with brightening his face. Ryui Bang and Jingu Bang were nowhere to be seen, which meant they were holstered safely at his back. He hadn’t had need of them in the time she had spent hunting for him.

She didn’t waste any more time. She was running before she could stop herself, but now she matched Sun’s pace as she moved towards him. Her gaze darted over him while she moved, looking for any sign of injuries or blood, and her knees felt weak when she confirmed she couldn’t see any.

They met in the middle of the plaza. Sun was slowing to a halt, still grinning from ear to ear and holding up his hand in a thumbs up gesture while he stopped. Blake, however, did not hesitate. She couldn’t say what it was which overcame her, to encourage her to keep going. But Sun had no sooner planted both feet on the ground before she collided with his chest, her forehead pressed to the skin exposed from his open shirt, and her ears brushed his collarbone. She heard, and felt, the small grunt that escaped Sun’s chest in his surprise. Her arms wrapped under his a moment later, and she pressed herself to him.

It was too late to regret the action, but Blake couldn’t bother concerning herself with her restraint or self-image in the moment. He was alive, well and whole in her arms, and that was all she cared about as she burrowed into him with earnest relief.

Sun didn’t seem to know what to do with her; and she couldn’t blame him. She had never before been so forward with him, and it took him a couple of seconds— so long it felt like lifetimes to her— before she felt his own arms wrap hesitantly behind her shoulders.

“Hey,” he said, his voice softer now. It rumbled gently through her, and she relished in the way it felt to hear him speak. The peace his words brought to her, that soothed away the panic and the pain she carried. “You okay? Did something happen?”

Blake shook her head. She could hear his heart beating just below her ears, which twitched again.

She was becoming far too familiar with the brand of fear which accompanied witnessing the near death experiences of those she cared for. Just minutes earlier, even the thought of Sun in mortal danger had caused alarms shrieking in her head. The sound of his heartbeat was the only thing assuring her she had been too paranoid. Hearing it now, the steady thrum of his lifeblood, she had never been more thankful to for a sound like it in her life.

Sun’s hand was tracing slow circles between her shoulders. She could practically feel his gaze on her, no doubt questioning if she had lost a fair bit of her sanity in the short span of time since they had last seen each other. She probably had; she had even thought Sun had disappeared. He was so much better than that, she knew. Guilt gnawed at her relief with vicious teeth.

“What’s wrong?” he asked quietly. His voice vibrated through her forehead when he spoke.

“I…” she couldn’t bring herself to voice her thoughts, the way they had spiraled out of control at the first sense that something had been amiss. It was pointless, now; Sun was safe, and Adam hadn’t touched him. But she couldn’t pretend that she had nothing to hide when her heart was still racing at the thought that Adam could still come back for them, and it was easier when she didn’t have to look Sun in the eye when she said it.

“I couldn’t find you after the girls left. I thought…” she trailed off, then shook her head. Sun’s fingers continued making small laps around an imaginary point between her shoulders.

Perhaps she really was more courageous when she didn’t have to look a person in the eyes when she confessed. “I thought Adam had gone after you.”

Sun stiffened beneath her, and she froze as well.

She was a breath away from pulling back, fearing she had overstepped her bounds when it came to her concern for him, when his arms tightened behind her. He swayed them both from side to side for a moment, in an echo of the ball months prior. The time when they had danced the night away, carefree and blissfully happy. She rather missed feeling like that.

“I haven’t seen him since he ran off,” Sun said. “I’m sorry you couldn’t find me. I was gonna go looking for you, actually…but then I suggested getting some of the rooms set up for folks to crash in. The cops wanted my help opening the dorms. Can’t have free beds go to waste, right?” he swayed them again, and Blake felt his tail brush over the skin of her cheek. 

“Did you think he was going to come back?” he asked, after a few more moments of silence fell by. Blake made no effort to remove herself. She still couldn’t look Sun in the eye when he spoke, and so she elected to shrug wordlessly.

She knew she hadn’t seen the last of Adam that night. Regardless of how far he had now fallen from grace, there still remained a part of her which knew the atrocities he was capable of. Cut off one head of a King Taijitu, and another still remained. Even without the backing of the Fang and its more violent tendencies, a cornered, wounded enemy was almost worse than one who was well equipped to maim. With nothing to lose and everything to gain now, Adam would be desperate, especially if Blake now had the opposite. He would only cease to be dangerous once he was either dead or locked away. Until then, she could never truly escape his shadow.

But Sun was the opposite of Adam’s darkness. He was resplendent, overcasting any shadows of doubt Blake harbored.

And she refused to lose herself in that darkened pit which Adam had carved within her. Sun was here now, and safe in her arms. Unwounded. Though the reminder of injuries harkened back to a night weeks prior, when Sun _had_ been in danger. When he had almost died for her as they collapsed on a rooftop, underneath the same shattered moon which hung above their heads now.

Blake didn’t allow that echo to be her ruin. Instead she braced herself, and raised her head slightly. Sun shifted as she moved, she could feel him hum in silent question, but she remained mute as she tilted her face towards his left shoulder. Though it had scarred, Blake knew the wound left by Ilia’s electric whip was hidden underneath the fabric of Sun’s shirt. She pressed her lips over the area where she knew it to be, as familiar to her as the scar across her abdomen.

“I’m just glad you’re safe,” she whispered into his scar. She rested her forehead over the spot she had kissed, closing her eyes to the world.

Her bravado slowly melted as the minutes went by, however.

 _Gods, I just kissed him,_ she realized belatedly. Her face flamed, but she didn’t dare budge despite a growing urge to sink into the floor. Sun hadn’t moved, and Blake began to wonder if he had simply frozen over in her arms. Maybe she had overstepped? It wasn’t like he was expecting her to do that. She certainly hadn’t thought it through, but she had been overcome with the relief at his safety.

She opened her eyes, lifted her head with the full intent to apologize, but Sun quickly relaxed out of his statue-like posture when she moved. He pressed a hand to the base of her neck, while the other remained splayed between her shoulder-blades. When she looked him in the eye, she saw a thousand words behind them. Some she could put a name to, but others were beyond her understanding. Awe, shock, hope…all of that and the rest of those unnamed emotions blending together to form a softness that warmed his expression the longer she watched him.

Her brow furrowed as they stared at one another. Sun’s eyes were darting between her own, searching for something she could not pinpoint. But when she opened her mouth to question his silence, his eyes crinkled as he smiled at her.

“Hey, I’m glad we’re both okay,” he said.

Then, because Sun was nothing if not an instigator, he continued. “And look, if you wanna kiss me that badly, you gotta go for the lips. I don’t do things halfway, Belladonna.”

_“Sun!”_

Just as quickly as the fear had came, it was replaced with the easy happiness that Blake found she could always bask in whenever Sun was around. He was laughing at her indignation, and he tugged her closer to him as she frowned at him, though there was no heat in her gaze. Only that increasingly-familiar softness she was beginning to accept. Sun was safe, and at her side. That was all that mattered, in the end.


End file.
